Frank Viscuso

Some people like to debate whether leaders are made or born. Most likely, some true leaders are born, but most are made-"self-made."

Report writing is an essential part of success in the fire service. For example, using the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) supported by the United States Fire Administration (USFA) and accurately documenting the incident by putting in the correct data will assist you in acquiring funding through grants and other sources.

In their new book Fireground Operational Guides (PennWell, 2011) Deputy Chief Frank Viscuso and Deputy Chief Michael Terpak provide readers with a universal tactical worksheet that could be used at all structure fires and 70 operational “field” guides for multiple incident types.

It's hard to conceive that there may be firefighters who would trade their career in the fire service for a 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. desk job. We are fortunate in our profession that the majority of firefighters are happy to be on the job and thoroughly enjoy coming to work; however, there is a minority who are dissatisfied and disgruntled.

“You want me to do what?” That’s what I said, out loud, I think, when my chief asked me to write a standard operating procedure (SOP) for my department. I was a captain only for one year, and I had very little writing experience. However, I was assigned to the training division, and with that comes those dreaded “administrative” duties.

As a key component of America’s first line of defense, today’s fire service faces many challenges. Since 9/11, fire departments across the country have had to shift their thinking and continuously train in specialty areas such as technical rescue and mass decontamination. As a result, many departments often get away from the area that should be among its primary focuses, structural firefighting training. One way to get back to the basics is to find and legally acquire abandoned buildings in your area that can be used for a variety of training evolutions.